Tag Archives: atheist

Retired Australian high court judge Michael Kirby is a committed Christian. His partner of 41 years Johan van Vloten is a non-believer. Both men talk about their relationship and faith, or lack thereof, in an television documentary airing next week in Australia.

Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan made false allegations about the couple in 2002. Their individual reaction now to Heffernan is … different.

Eight years on, Kirby betrays no sign of anger, but insists it is a subject he hates having to discuss. ”I’d rather not talk about it really because every time I do so it becomes part of my life,” he says ”Do you know, if you Google Johan’s name, what comes up is not this prudent, loving, faithful companion. What comes up is Senator Heffernan’s attack. I regard that as sad and offensive. I hope that one day if his name is Googled what will come up is his example of human kindness, support, intelligence and goodness to everyone.”Read more

Atheists have always been a minority. Religious minorities are frequently in an awkward position, particularly when the majority considers their very existence to be a challenge. So atheists have tended to keep quiet, sometime not even realizing that the person they are speaking to is another atheist.

Like this:

“Atheist: someone who believes that nothing made everything.” That’s the message best-selling author Ray Comfort is pushing through a series of billboards across the country. He has done this to coincide with the Feb 12th, the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin. At the same time he has published a new book called, You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence But You Can’t Make Him Think (World Net Daily) to combat what he calls the fallacy of evolution, and expose what he believes is the hidden core belief of an atheist.

Like this:

OLYMPIA, Wash. – A controversial atheist sign that was placed in the state Capitol near a Nativity scene vanished Friday morning, but then turned up at a Seattle radio station a few hours later.

A receptionist at the radio station KMPS said a man dropped off the sign around 10 a.m. and asked her to give it to show host Ichabod Caine. The man did not say how he came by it before he left, she added.

The state patrol is treating the disappearance as a theft investigation.

The atheists’ sign was installed Monday by Washington members of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national group based in Madison, Wis.

Since then, radio and TV talk show conservatives have derided Gov. Christine Gregoire, a Democrat, for allowing the display.

A Gregoire spokesman said the office at one point was getting about 200 calls an hour, as well as e-mails, about the display.

The governor and state attorney general’s office then issued this statement: “The U.S. Supreme Court has been consistent and clear that, under the Constitution’s First Amendment, once government admits one religious display or viewpoint onto public property, it may not discriminate against the content of other displays, including the viewpoints of nonbelievers.”

With a nod to the winter solstice in late December, the placard reads, in part: “There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”

The foundation’s co-president, Dan Barker, said it was important for atheists to offer their viewpoint alongside the overtly religious Nativity scene and a Christmas-style holiday tree at the Capitol Rotunda.

“Our members want equal time,” Barker said. “Not to muscle, not to coerce, but just to have a place at the table.”

The three displays, all privately sponsored, were granted permits from state groundskeepers to be placed in the Capitol’s grand marble hallways.

The 25-foot noble spruce, called the “Capitol Holiday Kids Tree,” is sponsored by the Association of Washington Business and tied to a charity drive for needy families. It’s been a Capitol fixture for nearly 20 years.

The Nativity scene was installed more recently, and a menorah has been displayed in the past.